40 Under 40 2001 Profile 10

Unlike just about everyone else at City Hall, she's never worked a precinct or rung a doorbell at election time. Nor is she eyeing a race for elective office.

But that's okay, says Mara Georges, the chief attorney for the city of Chicago. She is what she wants to be: a lawyer, just like her father.

Actually, the West Side native originally thought she was going to become a physician. But then, her father, Peter, an Illinois Appellate Court justice, had a heart attack in the middle of the night. "I gave him CPR," she recalls. "It didn't work."

Her career having tracked back into the family business -- several cousins are lawyers and an uncle is a judge -- Ms. Georges picked up her law degree at Loyola University and went to work as a litigation partner at Rock Fusco Reynolds Crowe & Garvey. She ended up second chair in a case with name partner Brian Crowe.

When Mr. Crowe became city corporation counsel, he took Ms. Georges with him as his first assistant. And when he left in 1999, she moved up, taking over the leadership of a department with 270 attorneys and a $35-million budget.

Some like her a lot. "She worked on her client's issue," says Julia Stasch, former mayoral chief of staff. "She doesn't have a separate agenda." Others quietly murmur that the department has changed little from the days when it was viewed as a convenient dumping ground for sundry precinct captains and aldermanic brothers-in-law.

Ms. Georges sees it differently, defending her decision to settle some controversial cases out of court, and noting that the department has drastically cut back on the amount of work it farms out to outside firms.

"We're at the cutting edge of every single issue that affects the city," she says. "I feel I'm respected here. I feel people follow my advice."